Student: Eleri Price Company: Innovis Academic Supervisor: Prof. Nigel Scollan & Prof. Will Haresign For the majority of customers, lamb is consumed less than once a month. Most Welsh lamb is eaten outside of Wales. In order to maintain a thriving sheep industry and its vital contribution to the rural and national economy of the… Read more »

Student: Alexandros Koutsantonis Company: Catnic (Tata Steel UK Ltd) Academic Supervisor: Jiping Bai & Rae Gordon In July 2013, under the Construction Products Regulation (CPR), CE Marking became mandatory for all construction products where a harmonised European Standard exists. Where compliance with the conditions of relevant European Standards is achieved, the manufacturer in the European… Read more »

The Authority has developed a Research Prospectus in order to help it answer some crucial questions about the Park’s changing environment and the resilience of the communities living here, and this research contributes directly to that knowledge base. The eventual publication of peer-reviewed papers for this research will help to raise the Authority’s and the Park’s profile within the field of applied ecological research. This was the first time that this Authority entered a KESS studentship with a university.

Swansea University continues to maintain a regular and helpful research presence within the National Park. The CORS project evolved from discussions on how best to achieve added value research on raised bogs whilst avoiding the sort of disturbance that can be caused by ad hoc research.

The KESS project essentially looked at the provision of a better glove; the problem with most gloves is that they tend to be randomly made up of the materials available at that time. There are some very good glove materials available on the market, but consideration needs to be taken when looking at the combinations and the creations of the gloves.

As part of the KESS project we looked to generate a test which is less destructive and better for the patient/subject, while at the same time giving us the same information so we have that aspect, which means that the people/the end user will be benefitting. The project has created a test bed that we can use, and created a good link with the Raynaud’s and Scleroderma association who are the main beneficiaries to some extent. It’s tested and produced a methodology to test gloves and from that we have managed to get the data in.

The impact for the RSPCA has been significant in that they have been able to review their rehabilitation and release strategies based on the work we have done together. This means more effective and successful care for Badgers in the future but also, the RSPCA (and other organisations) have a framework for best practise for the reintroduction of any rehabilitated animals.

As a result of the public engagement work we have undertaken, such as appearing on television and radio, the profiles of both the RSPCA and Swansea University have been raised. Improving public awareness of environmental issues is an important outcome of projects such as this, with not only societal impact, but future economic impact as it leads to improved student recruitment to the university.

The project provided the opportunity to reveal music from the past with great benefits for present day Welsh culture and music, highlighting aspects of Welsh music that has never been seen, heard or performed before in Wales.

The collection of 88 folk songs from the 19th Century had been archived in the National Library in Aberystwyth. Through Leila’s KESS PhD project in conjunction with Curiad Music this collection was published for the first time.

What this project did that was different from other projects was that it placed an economic value on the environmental benefits that anaerobic digestion can offer over the short term. Over the long term, this type of work has the potential to offer wider societal benefits, for instance an improvement in water quality; this in turn can affect the tourism industry, water companies and so on. In addition to this is of course the fact that anaerobic digestion provides a source of renewable energy, reducing CO2 emissions. There are many people who can benefit financially from the results of this research, the taxpayer benefits, as do large, medium and small private companies; so there are many economic and environmental advantages and I think that this is highlighted in the project.

The KESS project was a development of an early year’s nursery intervention for children to learn to eat fruits and vegetables; it was undertaken in co-operation with our company partner Food Dudes. Food Dudes have award winning programmes proven to work with children who are in primary schools, however because we know that eating habits are established early on, we know that we should intervene as early as possible.

The KESS project was to develop an intervention for children who were about 2-3 years old and then pilot it in nurseries in the area. To my knowledge this is the only project of its kind that has successfully completed the research and immediately translated the results by the company into a commercially viable product, therefore an intervention that can be administered in nurseries nationwide.